How and Where To Pay Your Water Bill

If you are one of the growing number of expats that have chosen to setup home on Koh Samui, you will no doubt already be aware of the many great things that the island has to offer permanent residents. However, in the first few weeks and months of settling on the island, it is fair to say that you will probably be too busy enjoying yourself and adjusting to your new life to worry about mundane tasks and chores, such as paying for household utility bills.

Now, there are obviously a million and one things that you would rather be doing than paying for your monthly usage of water. Let’s face it, your new life on Koh Samui won’t be all that great if you fail to pay for your household utilities, yet this is something that can often be overlooked.

One of the reasons for this is that the process of paying for your household bills on Koh Samui, or anywhere else in Thailand for that matter, will probably be different from what you might have been used to in your previous country of residence.

When paying for bills back home, you might have had some kind of electronic bank transfer or direct debit in place that would pay the utility provider enough money from your bank account to cover your bill each month. If you didn’t pay for you bills via a bank transfer you could have written the utility company a cheque each month instead.

However, as is often the way in Thailand, things tend to operate a little differently and paying for water bills is no exception!

Once you know how, paying for bills on Koh Samui is actually pretty straightforward. First of all, it is important to know that ALL of your household utility bills can be paid at your local branches of 7/11, Family Mart, Tesco Lotus or Big C and also at many banks and Post Offices.

As long as you pay for your bills on time and in advance of the due date, then just take the bill down to 7/11 and pay for it as you would do as if you were buying something from the shop. There will be a small handling fee for the privilege but this is only about 15 baht.

If you happen to be paying for a particular utility bill later than the date in which it can be paid at 7/11 or at any of the other outlets mentioned above, then you will need to head to the local offices of the provider for water on Koh Samui.

Water is provided by the Provincial Waterworks Authority. Every town or province will have a local EGAT or PWA office where you can go to pay your bill. Unlike paying for the bill at 7/11 or in a supermarket, there is no handling fee or service charge when paying at the electricity provider’s office.

The local EGAT office on Samui can be found in Nathon, the islands municipal and administrative centre, where it is located close to the immigration office and Nathon Hospital.